“‘Sup, Mrs Hopkins,” Birdman said.
Mum smiled at them. “Mary, boys, please.”
Fret bobbed his head. “Mary.”
Birdman elbowed him. “How were your holidays, Lottie?”
I nodded. “Fine.”
“Get a dress?”
“What dress?” Mum asked and I winced.
“Formal dress.”
Mum turned on me. “You didn’t tell me you were going to the formal! Lottie, it’s in eight weeks! And I missed out on dress shopping?”
How she knew when the formal was, was beyond me. Woman probably read the newsletter front to back, then back to front in case she missed anything. I had to concede it probably just showed she cared.
I gave her a sheepish smile. “Sorry?”
She shook her head. “No. No Sorry.” She pointed at the boys. “I’m going to Skype her and we’re going to find something online.”
The boys nodded like they weren’t quite sure what they had to do with it.
“You make sure she doesn’t pike out,” Mum finished.
“Scout’s honour,” Alex said.
I rolled my eyes. “I’m sure that’s blasphemous.”
“It’s not blasphemous,” Mum said. “It’s an honour code. Something I note you don’t have.”
“Because I forgot to mention I needed a formal dress?” I laughed, unable to take her incredulity seriously.
She nodded. “Yes. How am I supposed to live vicariously through you and revisit my shining youth if we don’t go dress shopping?”
I smirked and she smiled.
“He wasn’t even in the Scouts,” I told her. “So it’s all a lie.”
“I can still uphold the Scout honour code,” Alex said.
“Do you even know what it is?”
“I like to uphold the Pirate Code,” Fret said, rocking back on his heels.
We all looked at him and smiled. He grinned back, seemingly quite happy with himself.
“All right,” Mum said. “I think you’re set. Just two more terms, then home again.”
“Until next year,” I reminded her.
“One year at a time, Ellie,” she chastised, using my old nickname. “Right, been lovely to see you boys, but I’m due back in Adelaide before midnight.”
“Why?” Fret asked. “What happens at midnight?”
Mum smiled. “I turn into a pumpkin.”
I rolled my eyes. “Get out,” I laughed.
Mum gave me a huge hug and a kiss and I helped her out of the dorm room.
“Lunch?” Fret asked.
I looked at my phone. “Bit late for lunch isn’t it?”
Fret tapped his nose. “Not on Return Day. There’s a long lunch.”
“Why has no one told me this before?” I asked him.
Fret shrugged. “‘Cos your roommate sucks,” he chortled.
I might have missed Mum while I was at school, but I certainly missed the boys while I was at home. It was nice to know though that after being away from one for a while, things were just the same as I’d left them.
“Hey, you got a condom?” I asked Alex later that week.
We were still trading condoms back and forth. I didn’t know who he was using them with, or when, and I didn’t care to find out. What he didn’t know was that I wasn’t using them and, when he asked me for one, I’d just give him back the one he’d leant me.
It seemed stupid for me to ask him, but I had this weird feeling that I needed to make sure he knew I was interested in other people. Other people being not him. It made little sense and I dwelled on it as little as possible. The drive was still strong, though.
“Yeah. Check my wallet.” He kicked his head to the coffee table.
I picked it up and flipped it open to find it. It was where it usually was.
“Thanks,” I said, wandering into my room.
Making sure he wouldn’t see me, I slipped it into the bag in my bedside table and went back to my homework until I needed to head to the library for a book.
I got back before I expected he’d be heading to bed, but I found him on the couch with a hot chocolate and watching tellie in his PJs.
“I didn’t know when you’d be back,” he said, “but I made you one. It’s on the counter.”
“Hey, thanks.” I picked it up and dropped onto the couch next to him.
Accidentally, I’d dropped a little too close to him and our bodies were quite hard up close to each other’s. He didn’t seem to mind, so I just stayed where I was.
“What are you doing for next holidays?” he asked me after a bit as he put his cup down.
It felt awfully early to be thinking about the next holidays, considering we’d only been back a whole week, but then I did already miss Mum a bit.
I looked over at him. “Nothing much. I’ll go home and Mum will have some weird and ridiculous plan of activities that we never would have thought of doing before I came away. Then, we’ll spend all holidays rugged up on the couch in front of the fire watching movies.”
“Sounds nice.”
I nodded. “It is. What about you?”
“I’ll spend two weeks at my parents’ place probably by myself since uni holidays don’t match up with school ones and my sister will be in the city.”
That sounded like it would suck. “You could come down to the city…maybe?”
“Watch a movie by the fire with you and your mum?” he teased, then sobered.
I shrugged. “Whatever. We could go out. We could hang at home. Whatever we felt like. You could even stay over in our spare room, I’m sure.”
“You inviting me home for the holidays, Lottie?” he joked, and this time the humour stayed.
It was then I noticed that he never referred to his parents’ house as ‘home’. He’d called Acacia home when we’d gone out to dinner in Term One. But he’d never called the one place that always supposed to be there for you ‘home’. I didn’t know if it was sad or not. I felt like I’d be sad if that was me, but Alex just seemed like that’s what it was. I supposed it was one of those things he couldn’t change so he wasn’t going to get overly upset about it.
“Yeah, Alex,” I said, keeping my tone as light as I could. “I guess I’m inviting you home for the holidays.”
He laced his hands behind his head and smiled. “I’d love to.”
Chapter Twenty
I woke up feeling like death. The reason for which was obvious about half an hour later.
So, I was tucked up on the window seat with a heat bag, some hot chocolate and my book for most of the morning. I was on my fourth hot chocolate when there was a very unfamiliar voice at the door.
“Uh, hey. Is Alex in?”
I turned and saw the stunning creature at the door. In comparison to the high levels of swamp witch I was giving off that day, she didn’t make me feel all that great about myself. Or, that could just have been the period talking.
She looked too old for Alex but, unless she was a teacher – which I thought was beyond him, no matter how charming he was – she was at most a year older.
“No. Move on, sweetie. He and his commitment-phobia has, but don’t take it personally…” I was full of less anger and more sadness as I finished, “he just doesn’t want to get hurt.”
“And how would you know that?” she asked me.
“He told me. But I shouldn’t share it around so…” I held my finger to my lips. “Shh.”
She just laughed. “You must be Lottie.”
I looked down at myself. “In all my swamp witch glory.”
She just smiled even wider. It was a smile I recognised. Something was ticking into place.
“I’m Marina. Alex’s sister.”
Well, that made a whole lot more sense. And explained why I recognised her smile. The family resemblance was small, but it was there.
“Oh, hey. Yes. Lottie is me. I am Lottie. Nice to meet you. Uh,” I
looked around in panic. “Alex is still at practice.”
Marina nodded. “Figures. Okay if I wait? Aunt Tam said to make myself at home.”
I nodded. “Sure…”
She walked in and lowered herself gracefully onto the couch.
There she was in a sleek skirt and shirt and coat with towering heels. Her hair was silky and wavy and so shiny, but good shiny. As I watched, she pushed at a perfectly placed wave like it was a tick. Like the way Alex kept training his hair up. She was gorgeous. Just as gorgeous as her brother, but in a different way. She reminded me of some posh New Yorker in a movie.
Then there was me in my over-sized comfy PJs and slouchy boot slippers. My hair in a messy bun with fly always everywhere because it wasn’t actually long enough for a proper bun. I was ready to own my swamp witch destiny, but I was also a little bit awestruck at the put-together-ness of her.
“So, you’re new this year?” Marina asked.
I nodded. “Yep.”
“Did you board before?”
I shook my head. “No. Public school.”
“Bit of a shock, I expect?”
I nodded. “Just a bit.”
“Even more after being roomed with my little brother, I’ll bet,” she laughed. It, like, tinkled pleasantly.
“Ah, he’s not been so bad. A surprise, yeah, but not so bad once we got to know each other.”
Marina smiled at me. “He certainly has plenty of nice things to say about you.”
That surprised me. Although, I wasn’t sure if it was the fact he talked about me at all, or that when he did he had nice things to say. “Really?”
She nodded. “Yeah,” she chuckled. “I’d have thought he was totally smitten with you.”
I got a little burst of happy in my chest. “Really?”
“Yep. If he hadn’t sworn up and down that you were just friends, that is.”
The little happy didn’t so much burst as dissipated. “Yeah. We’re really not each other’s type.”
Marina looked me over. “No, I see that. Alex has rank taste in girls.”
I laughed awkwardly. “I’m sure it’s not…rank…”
“Okay, big sister exaggeration. He’s still not got great taste.”
I wasn’t sure why that bothered me.
“Mare…?” Alex said, a question in his tone, as he walked into the room.
“Hey, little bro.”
“What are you doing here and making yourself at home with my roommate?” he had the typical mistrust of a younger sibling expecting an older sibling to be in the middle of a prank.
“I’m here for your RSVP. Mum said no more dawdling.”
Alex dumped his bag on the floor and sighed. “Ugh. Of course, I’ll be there. It’s Ilya’s wedding.” He looked at me. “Yep. Mum took her distant Russian heritage to heart when she named us.”
Marina sniggered. “Foreign is sexy,” she said in an exaggerated whisper, then looked at her brother. “It’s not just yes or no. You know this.”
For the first time, I watched as Alex stamped his foot. “I don’t want to.”
“You mean there’s someone you can’t charm your way around?” I sassed him.
He looked at me pointedly. “Do not get me started on my mother. Her and her bloody expectations.”
“Appearances are important to her,” Marina agreed. “We know this. We deal with this. It’s legit just a person, Alex. Mum just wants you to bring a date.”
I literally snorted. “Good luck with that.”
Alex pointed at me, close to full-on tantrum-mode. “Even Lottie knows me well enough to know that’s not going to happen.”
Marina looked at her brother, then to me, then back to Alex, and back to me. “He can take you.”
“What?” I asked as Alex cried, “Yes!”
I looked at him. “What? No.”
“Why not? What’s better than having my best friend there?”
While I liked the idea he thought of me as a best friend – the feeling was undeniably mutual if you tended to want to simultaneously hug your best friend and clobber them over the head – I wasn’t sure that going to a family wedding was a very good idea. I had no idea why not. Maybe it was the need for a dress.
“Yes!” Marina smiled. “Perfect!”
I looked between them somewhat helplessly.
“Say you’ll come. Please?” Alex asked.
“If you get down on one knee…” I started, feeling like he was so desperate he actually might resort to such kitsch tactics.
He crossed his heart. “Promise I won’t.”
“Will this get me out of the formal?”
“Not on your life.”
“Can I wear the same dress?”
“You can wear a wine barrel for all I care.”
“Alex,” Marina admonished.
“She gets it,” he told her, not taking his eyes off me.
I couldn’t help but smile. If this was friendship, I could deal with it. If wanting to do something for someone even though you didn’t really want to do it was friendship, then I already knew what my answer was going to be.
I nodded. “Fine. Yes,” I laughed as he threw his arms up and whooped. “I’ll go.”
“Thank you!” He said as he wrapped me up and hugged me so tight my feet left the ground.
“See?” Marina said. “Was that so hard?”
He pointed at her. “Just make sure Aunt Tam knows there’s nothing hinky going on. It’s just a friend-date.”
Marina’s nose wrinkled. “Hinky? What? Have you guys been bingeing ‘Scooby Doo’ or something?”
“Shut up,” Alex muttered as he put me down and I laughed. “Did you drive all that way just to get me to bring a date?”
Marina shook her head. “I’m mid-work. We’re trying to get a few more restaurant contracts so I’m the missionary.”
Alex sniggered and I knew what he was thinking.
“Gross,” Marina said. “Grow up.”
Alex snorted as he tried to hold in his laughter. “No. Sorry. All grown.”
“Anyway, I’m having brunch with Aunt Tam. You coming?”
Alex shrugged. “She didn’t mention anything.”
“Why would she? We only just organised it about half an hour ago.”
“We already hang out once a week,” he whined.
Marina looked him over as she stood up. “I don’t care either way. Do what you want.”
“Then I choose to hang out with Lottie.”
Marina looked between us with a smile. “Of course you do.”
Not knowing what that meant, we said our goodbyes to her.
n
The next weekend, Alex insisted we go on a shopping mates date from the comfort of our window seat.
“Why?” I asked.
“You need a dress.”
“I’m sure I have something at home I can wear. I’ll get Mum to photo everything I have and send it.”
“When was the last time you went to a wedding or a formal?” he asked me.
I thought about it. “I was seven.”
“Was this an older man situation, or…?” he teased.
I threw a cushion at him. “It was a wedding. Not mine!” I said quickly before he could make another joke. “My uncle’s.”
He nodded. “Right. Now, I know you’re not exactly a big person…but have you, maybe, grown since then?”
“Mum and I are somehow shopping online together…in like five minutes, can’t I just get a twofer dress?”
“Oh, good idea!” Alex said brightly. “Although, that might require showing your legs.”
I frowned. “Why would it require me showing my legs?”
He shrugged. “Guests don’t usually wear floor length dresses to weddings, do they?”
“How am I supposed to know?”
Alex looked at me for a second. “Good point.”
“You could at least pret
end to argue.”
He threw me a grin as my Skype started ringing on my laptop. “Why? You’d just argue then. Way easier to agree with you.”
I didn’t know if I loved that or hated that.
“Hey, Mum,” I said as I answered the call.
“Hi, Mary!” Alex called, hovering over my shoulder.
“Hi, Alex,” Mum said with a smile.
“I hear we’re dress shopping!” Alex said happily.
“You coming, too?” Mum asked.
Alex settled himself on the window seat beside me. “I was going to take her shopping for a dress for my brother’s wedding, but–”
“Oh, that’s nice. Lottie says I need to return a form about that?”
Alex nodded and angled the computer to himself. I flailed my hands and sat back until I was needed.
“Yep,” he said. “There’s a form for leaving mid-term with another student. Super easy, takes like five seconds. It just needs to be my name and for two nights. The Friday to the Sunday.”
Mum was clearly writing things down on a pad next to her keyboard. “Okay. And that’s in…three weeks?” she asked.
“Yep.”
“Is your aunt driving you?”
“She is, yes.”
“Oh,” Mum said, presumably to me. “Your own mini field trip with the principal!”
I rolled my eyes. “Can we get on, please?”
“Sure. I found two websites I think look good,” Mum said.
“I don’t doubt you did. What are they?”
Mum squinted at the screen. “JJ’s House and…ASOS.”
“Oh, ASOS!” Alex said happily.
I looked at him.
“What? They have good stuff.”
Mum dropped the links in the chat section and I opened them up.
“Are they going to ship in time?” I asked.
“Yes, they’ll ship in time. Although, we wouldn’t have this problem if you’d just told me about this over the holidays,” Mum said pointedly.
“Yeah, yeah. I suck,” I muttered as I started scrolling through the websites.
“Oh, that one’s nice,” Alex said.
I glared at him. “What’s with the giant slit up it? I don’t need people seeing my knees.”
“It’s hardly the Regency, Lottie,” Mum said.
“I’m aware of that, but what’s the point of a long dress just to have a great big gash–”
the Roommate Mistake Page 14
